


Sara Wakes

by InkFire_Scribe



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: Dreamish AU, Grief, Trauma, Tumblr Prompt, don't blame me, it was all a dream
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:48:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26657671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkFire_Scribe/pseuds/InkFire_Scribe
Summary: Inspired by (ripped off from) disaster-magnet-runner-five's "Dreamish AU" on Tumblr, where folk wake up and the apocalypse never happened, but they remember it and still have to deal with Trauma and Guilt and Fear.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 17





	Sara Wakes

**Author's Note:**

> It is far too late in the day for this kind of thing, so have my rough-draft of a traumatic scribbling.

This was it at last. This was the way she made everything right. Staggering through the knee-high grass, the rattle of a wet cough in her chest, her shouts reduced to hoarse groans. She forced herself on, ricocheting off a tree as she careened into the woods. This was it. And she could only hope, vaguely, that Five would forgive her. Somehow. She'd done... terrible things. 

But it had all been for them, hadn't it? 

Hadn't it? 

_The road to hell is paved with good intentions._

A choked laugh accompanied the blood brought up by a fresh cough. She felt so hot, and yet so cold. Her head blazed with heat, her hair was soaked with sweat, but she shivered. The woman observed those things as if from a distance. This was the end, and in a way it was a fitting one. Perhaps it would have been kinder to the others if they had never known, but at least this way it would comfort them in what small ways death could. 

A final cough, the trees fading behind a film of grey, a pain in her chest...

And she woke up. 

Sara Smith sat up with a gasp, her rumpled bedclothes tangled about her. For a panicked handful of seconds, she fought them, remembering clammy hands and rotting teeth and forgetting her willingness to die for her friends. All at once she fell to the carpet with a bang that rattled the lamp on her bedstand. The impact seemed to snap her back to reality - if this even was reality. This was... yes. The old blue paint, the mended comforter, the tarnished bras lamp. This was her room. Her old room, not the cubby she had in the runner's dorms at Abel. This was how her room had looked _before_ Day Z. 

Sucking in a ragged breath, she tried to steady herself, tried to tell herself it was all a dream... but what part? Everything was so vivid. How could it not be real? 

And when she heard quiet voices in the next room, the adrenaline surge nearly sent her flying out into the hall. Sprinting for the kitchen, she grabbed a curtain rod on the way, remembering in excruciating detail what had happened the last time she'd been in this apartment. She dreaded having to do it all over again, but... but at least this time she knew it was coming. 

Then they were there. Her boys. At the table, their legs swinging, devouring toaster waffles. _Toaster waffles_. When was the last time she'd even _thought_ about them, let along tasted them? Not a cough, not a sniffle. They looked up at her and smiled, calling "good morning" in chorus before realizing something was wrong. 

David got up, his body lanky and awkward in that way that said he was growing faster than he knew how to cope with. But on his pale young face there was a concerned frown. 

"You alright, Mum?" 

Sara couldn't answer. Already she was struggling to recall their names, their faces. Those people from the other place. Or... the other life? She wasn't sure. Only that it had been _real_. 

"You said we could have waffles this morning." That was Kevin, looking as guilty as if he thought his breakfast was stolen. "You said we could. Last night, remember?" 

No, she didn't remember. But they could have been in here chowing down on sirloin steak and it wouldn't have made a bit of difference. The curtain rod clattered to the scuffed linoleum and Sara rushed across the room with her arms open, engulfing her boys and holding them so tight to her chest it was a wonder they didn't expire. 

"Mum?" 

Sara shook her head. She had lost them, in her... dream? Had it been a dream? No, it had been real. It had felt So Real. But they had been gone, and it had been all her fault. Tears started to form in her eyes, and she blinked them away fiercely. This was not the time or place

After a moment, she released them both. "I hope you two hooligans saved me some waffles." 

It wasn't normal, not by half. But at least it was closer. She would get there. Eventually. She hoped. 


End file.
